The present invention relates generally to recreational vehicles and, more particularly, to travel trailers and the like having multiple compartments therein. The present invention has particular application to “toy hauler” type trailers having a ramp door leading into a cargo compartment.
“Recreational vehicles” or “RVs,” as referred to herein, can be motorized or towed, but in general have a living area which provides shelter from the weather as well as personal conveniences for the user, such as a bathroom(s), bedroom(s), kitchen, dining room, and/or family room. Each of those rooms typically forms a separate compartment within the vehicle. A motorized recreational vehicle is generally referred to as a “motor home,” often of type “Class A” or “Class C,” for example. A towed recreational vehicle is generally referred to as a “travel trailer,” for example. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) provides more detailed public information about the different types of RVs which have been generally available at its internet web site, www.rvia.org.
In general, consumers have desired to include more and more features in RV designs, adding more rooms and functionality wherever possible. This has resulted in RVs being made with virtually any and/or all of the features found in a conventional house, including, for example, fireplaces, home theaters, queen size beds, and whirlpool baths. The RV can become, in effect, a home away from home, allowing the user to take all of usual the household comforts along wherever he or she goes. Further, the RV can be made to accommodate a number of users, with sleeping quarters for eight or more persons not being uncommon.
In recent years, some travel trailers and motor homes have also evolved to include cargo compartments large enough to carry motorcycles, snowmobiles, and various offroad vehicles which can be loaded into and out of the RV by way of a ramp door that forms part of a vehicle wall when closed. These RVs are typically referred to as “toy haulers,” the “toys” being the secondary vehicles taken in the trailer to and from campgrounds, parks, raceways, dunes, and the like for use outside of the trailer. Toy haulers can also be used for various hobbies and to transport portable equipment for user supported events like dog shows, ham radio fests, and the like, since the ramp door gives easy access for large containers and a place for the user to sleep or remain in comfort during the event. Further, some other types of vehicles, such as horse trailers and utility trailers have evolved to include living compartments as well as the animal and cargo compartments, such that they are functionally equivalent to RVs.
To accommodate consumer demand for greater functionality (more versatility, utility, features, accommodation of more users, and/or greater comfort), many RV manufacturers have previously made RVs larger overall. In part, the size increase has been accomplished by adding to the basic height, length, and/or width of the vehicle. Since there are often industry standard width and height dimensions for vehicles, this is often reflected in manufacturers using vehicle length as a means for differentiating functionality and/or models within their product lines. However, there are legal and practical restrictions upon the basic dimensions which vehicles are permitted to have when traveling on the various state and federal road systems. There are also restrictions upon the size of vehicles which users are permitted to drive or tow with common driver's licenses. Further, the larger the basic dimension of the vehicle, the heavier it tends to become. Not only are there weight restrictions for vehicles on some roads, but also heavier vehicles tend to use more fuel, thus becoming more costly to operate.
With respect to towed RVs, there is yet another size restriction to contend with. Many people enjoy the use of “park model travel trailers,” “mobile homes,” and “manufactured housing.” Each of these products can be subject to different manufacturing codes, vehicle movement laws, and taxes. As an RV design becomes larger in size, it can approach the size of park models and mobile homes, for example, in floorspace. While similar in many respects, of course, these products do have somewhat different overall intended purposes, and those differences are part of the reason for the different regulations and laws applicable to them. In general, it is not advantageous in the eyes of many users for an RV to be considered by law as a park model or mobile home. Accordingly, modern RV designs generally do not exceed certain basic dimensions.
Another way to accommodate consumer demand for greater functionality has been for RVs to be designed with “slide outs” from the basic vehicle dimensions. Slide outs are portions of a room which are retracted into the vehicle when not needed or when the vehicle is in motion, and then extended from the vehicle when it is parked and greater room space is desired. Slide outs typically accomplish this by mounting some or all of a side wall of the vehicle on a track, usually including a seating, closet, bed, or kitchen assembly. The track is, for example, aligned with the lateral axis of the vehicle and supports the slide out portion for actuation by an electric or hydraulic motor and/or manual drive mechanism. The track guides and defines the path of the slide out portion for motion inward and outward. A given RV may, for example, include one or more slide outs on one or both lateral sides of the vehicle.
However, certain slide outs can add significantly to the overall weight of the vehicle and are relatively costly to manufacture. Slide outs require not just the side wall portion which would otherwise be present in the trailer, but also additional slide out end walls, roofs, and floors, as well as special weather sealing arrangements, track mounting structure, and motor assemblies. Further, when retracted into the vehicle, those additional structures of slide outs can significantly reduce the useable space of a given room and, for example, thereby create significant inconvenience then the vehicle is used while in motion (if it is a motor home) and/or accessed for a short stop along the road (if it is, for example, a travel trailer).
Even when extended from the vehicle, slide outs have certain limits on the amount of space they can add to the vehicle. First, the maximum space to be gained is physically confined by the room available within a given floor plan for its retracted position. Second, even with slide outs, under current regulations and standards, an RV cannot exceed a specified fully extended “footprint” of floorspace without becoming, in the eyes of the law at least, a park model or mobile home, regardless of basic dimensions of the vehicle when the slide outs are retracted. This footprint is, typically, a specified number of square feet as determined by fully extending all slide outs and measuring the noon shadow created by the vehicle.
Even so, slide outs can allow an RV to be built with smaller basic dimensions to achieve the maximum allowable footprint and thereby increase ease of maneuver and towability when on the road and, in some cases, increase fuel economy and safety. However, in the case of toy haulers the use of slide outs has another limitation: the cargo area. It is usually desirable for the cargo area of toy haulers to be made as wide as possible so as to fit as many or as wide a secondary vehicle as possible. Retracting a slide out into the cargo area could severely restrict the usable space of the cargo area, and thus detract from one of the primary functions of the toy hauler.
In addition, it is often desirable to make the cargo area relatively long so as to fit not just the more stable, wide secondary vehicles, but also longer secondary vehicles capable of supporting a larger number of passengers, or a greater number of wider secondary vehicles. Thus, not only would a slide out be unavailable for use in the cargo area of a toy hauler, there would be less of the rest of the trailer in which a slide out could be used, unless the basic dimensions of the toy hauler was lengthened. That lengthening, however, can detract from one of the primary advantages of slide outs noted above.
For example, in order to accommodate a currently popular type of four passenger dune riding vehicle, toy haulers are preferably made with a 16 foot long cargo compartment. At the same time, in order to provide the toy hauler with some of the currently popular living compartment floor plans, the overall length of the toy hauler needs to be 46 feet. However, a 46 foot long trailer is classified as a “big rig” in some states, requiring special licensing and/or towing vehicle types and/or additional usage fees. Reducing the trailer length to a standard 40 foot size to avoid those “big rig” issues, could, according to conventional RV construction processes, require reducing the cargo area to 10 feet in length, unless livability floor space was to be sacrificed.
Some RV manufacturers have attempted to solve these concerns and increase functionality of toy haulers (as well as other RVs facing similar issues) by using vertically movable drop down or fold up fixtures and/or lofts over part of the cargo area. These drop down and fold up fixtures can be, for example, bed or seating assemblies which do not take up floor space in the cargo area when in a stowed position. Normally, then, when the secondary vehicle is loaded with the cargo compartment or when those fixtures are not desired for use, the drop down bed, for example, would be stowed up and out of the way against the ceiling and consume no floor space. Of course, that bed would be unavailable to the user when the loaded vehicle was in motion or at a short stop along the road because the secondary vehicle would block its use.
Further, such drop down or fold up fixtures typically need to be supported, especially in the stowed position, by the side walls of the RV (the end or back wall of the RV typically being the movable ramp door). That support can require extra structural features and/or extra rigidity or side wall strength in manufacturing of the RV, and that, in turn can cause an undesirable increase in overall vehicle weight and cost. In addition, such fixtures may require special actuation equipment if motor driven or special safety equipment and/or user precautions and operational procedures to avoid user injury and/or damage to the RV or secondary vehicle, especially if manually actuated.
Further, because of the dirt, fuel fumes, etc. of the secondary vehicles when loaded into the cargo compartment, the cargo compartment is often separated from the living compartments of toy haulers by a wall structure, commonly containing a door between the two compartments. When the secondary vehicles are removed from the cargo compartment, the drop down or fold up fixtures can created another living compartment, but one that is still isolated by the dividing wall from the rest of the living compartments. That division can be aesthetically and functionally undesirable and, at least with respect to the provision of heating and air conditioning within the living compartments, required increased structural features and costs to make the temperature environment of the cargo compartment equivalent to that of the rest of the vehicle. Similarly, that compartment could require additional entertainment system components, since it would have restricted availability to those components servicing the rest of the vehicle, if that kind of functionality was desired vehicle-wide.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved RV. Other objects of the present invention include the provision of an RV having:                a. an increased functionality to weight ratio,        b. an increased functionality to length ratio,        c. increased cargo space when cargo is loaded as well as increased livable space when cargo is unloaded without increasing the floorspace footprint of the vehicle, and        d. the ability to change the floorspace ratio of different compartments.        